The Dore Gallery of Bible Illustrations, by Gustave Dore

Belshazzar’s Feast.

Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand. Belshazzar,
whiles he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken
out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink
therein. Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was at
Jerusalem; and the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, drank in them. They drank wine and praised the
gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone.

In the same hour came forth fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the
wall of the king’s palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. Then the king’s countenance was changed,
and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against
another.

[On the failure of his astrologers and soothsayers to interpret the writing, the king, at the suggestion of his
queen, sends for Daniel, who interprets it as follows:]

O thou king, the most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father a kingdom, and majesty, and glory, and honor: and for
the majesty that he gave him, all peoples, nations, and languages, trembled and feared before him: whom he would he
slew; and whom he would he kept alive; and whom he would he set up; and whom he would he put down. But when his heart
was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him
and he was driven from the sons of men; and his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild
asses: they fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven; till he knew that the most high
God ruled in the kingdom of men, and that he appointeth over it whomsoever he will.

And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this; but hast lifted up
thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou, and thy
lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of
brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know: and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are
all thy ways, hast thou not glorified.

Then was the part of the hand sent from him; and this writing was written.

And this is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. This is the interpretation of the thing:
MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it. TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.
PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.

In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. And Darius the Median took the kingdom. — Daniel
v.